Just in case you didn’t know it, there’s a crisis in our churches and very few people are talking about it. While numbers may slightly vary, survey after survey shows we are losing up to 70% of the children we have raised in our churches when they become teens and college age. There are a number of reasons for this. While those issues do need to be addressed by pastors, church leaders and parents, I’ve been on a quest to find out what are some of the reasons they choose to STAY in the church and not leave.
One of the reasons they leave is a significant number of them have spent their whole lives in children’s and youth ministries and upon graduation from high school, they have never even been in a service with the adults. Therefore, they don’t know any of the adults, they have no relationships with any adults there other than their parents. So they are uncomfortable, and just don’t go.
Several surveys show that having significant relationships, particularly mentoring type relationships, where you actually take a young person under your wing, not just the obligatory “Hi. How are you?” comments at the end of a service, makes all the difference in the world.
If you are interested in more reasons young people choose to stay in our churches, listen to my new message on WHY THEY STAY AND WHY THEY STRAY. You can get it here: http://buff.ly/2pJpMd7
